Book Launch: My Creative Room 20 Profiles Of Singapore Media Talents3 min read

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The book “My Creative Room – 20 Profiles of Singapore’s Media Talents” will be launched on 21 Feb 2009, 3pm, at the National Museum’s The Balcony.

Three local movie critics team together to write, not about their own works, but giving space to feature 20 up-and-coming media talents, most of whom would have stayed hidden behind the camera if not for this book.

This project is also a self-initiated effort to raise funds for the Singapore International Film Festival 2009.

A first-of-its-kind publication about Singapore’s media industry and its creative talents as well as a self-initiated effort to support our local film festival.

Three of Singapore’s most established film critics team together to write about a subject they are most familiar with and passionate about: movies! This is not a collection of reviews and critiques of local films, but a work to reveal behind-the-scene operations, honour unsung heroes of local film industry, as well as to acknowledge the often-neglected creative process in making, well, movies!

Interestingly, all three authors are more accustomed to writing and communicating in Chinese professionally, and yet, collaborated to produce a book that is largely written in English. This display of Uniquely Singapore’s bilingualism offers a peek into the real working environment of the local media scene.

The 240-page My Creative Room, written and edited by Chew Boon Leong, Kong Kam Yoke and Danny Yeo, features 20 profiles of Singapore’s up-and-coming media talents.

Featuring the often-unsung heroes behind the creative scene, the authors/editors walk into the creative spaces of these talents and seek to understand the motivations and inspirations that drive them. Aside from words, the team also attempts to communicate the essence of the respective talents and their works visually, through page design and layout of each individual profile, keeping in tune with the nature and spirit of media work.

As a display of the local media community’s unity and mutual support for each other’s efforts, this book My Creative Room — which is not available for sale — will be launched as a fundraising drive, benefiting the Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF), an independent non-profit organization with a charity status. All proceeds from the sale of My Creative Room will go to SIFF.

The not-for-sale My Creative Room is expected to be a collector’s item for film buffs as well as media students, as print is limited to the first 1000 copies.

Commenting on the fundraising drive, Ms Wahyuni A. Hadi, Festival Co-Director of the SIFF says: “The Festival is proud to be associated with My Creative Room, a book that features some of the best in Singapore’s creative community. We are a festival that cannot exist without the community, and the pledging of donations from the distribution of the book expresses the importance of the SIFF in the local creative landscape. This is a very generous act from those involved in the book. We hope the public will support this effort.”

A copy of My Creative Room could be obtained via the following avenues:

1. with a donation (book is valued at S$18) at any of the book’s promotional events held in February/March
2. at the auction conducted at the SIFF Opening Party for 20 copies autographed by all the interviewees of My Creative Room;
3. Purchase a ticket to the Opening Film of this year’s SIFF, to be screened on 14 April, 8.00pm @ Lido 1.  Each Opening Film movie ticket will be priced at $30 (usual price: $20), and ticket holders will receive a complimentary copy of the book by showing their ticket at the door.

Remaining copies will be available during SIFF (14 – 25 April 2009), while stocks last.

For more information, do visit My Creative Room’s website or e-mail them at mycreativeroom@hotmail.com.